Traction-Talk - abbey hill steam rally

Not had time till now to get on TT so better late then never
A huge thanks to Charlie for a brill weekend at a new rally for us .
Craig and Roger went down with the engine on Thursday night but I couldn't get down till the sat.
As we ' Young Scottie' and I pulled though the gates we were met by a very friendly lady who checked we had a ticket and knew where we needed to go , she and the others on the gate made us feel very welcome ,as tho we had been many times before , I knew then it would be a good weekend.
The rally is what I call a good old fashion steam rally , something there to please all age groups and a bit of something for everyone , Well done to all who worked hard to put the show together and you couldn't have planed the weather any better.

The only bad thing to happen was when I got to the engine on Monday morning , well mid morning , none of the crew where there and as we needed to be in the ring at the earlier time of 12 , I thought I'd best clean the tubes etc and get her lit, I mean how hard could it be , I've watched it done for years now as I've been polishing the brass and paint work. So I did the tubes , that was easy, closing the smoke box door was harder and another story ha ha , emptied the ash pan , checked she was oiled up and had a go at lighting the fire. She normally takes about two hrs to get to pressure ( well she is a Fowler) , anyway within 40 mins she was creeping up to 40 psi and getting higher , by this time everyone's down and we where in the ring by 12.15 when the others engines went in.
Only problem now , Craig who doesn't do mornings , as anyone who knows him will say and all the crew have said I'll have to start doing the lighting up now cause they know I can do it , so just given myself more work , bang goes my holiday ha ha.

We hope you will invite us again next year and thanks again for a great weekend.